AS CRIANÇAS DA NOVA FLORESTA

RECORDANDO O VALE DAS MACAS were from Brazil and a fairly large seven piece band at the time of this release back in 1977. Lots of flavours here as we get violin, flute and a variety of keyboards besides the usual instruments which include acoustic and electric guitars. Yes two guitarists here both playing 12 string but one plays acoustic the other electric and we get lots of acoustic guitar on here. In fact this recording comes off as a Folk/ Symphonic affair with male vocals in Portuguese. We get a guest synth player who is on all the songs plus a female singer who is on the final two tracks and she adds a lot. That closer by the way is a side long 18 plus minute suite.

I love how some South American bands bring RPI to mind with those vocals. I really like the male singer here and this is a consistent recording for me with only that third song "Olhar Do Um Louco" bringing me down with it's ballad-like style. The rest make this a strong 4 star record. The opener shines with the acoustic guitar and vocals standing out especially along with the flute. We get violin and flute early on "Besteira" as multi-vocals join in. Again acoustic guitar stands out and we also get piano here.

The final two tracks are my favourites. "Raio De Sol" has the female singer I really like and she's just on the end of the closer as well, so here we get a great listen to her voice. This is so uplifting! Clavinet too! The closer is like I said over 18 minutes and is quite uniform with repeated themes and the style stays the same. Again some uplifting, feel good moments here but man lots of time to stretch out and change tempos etc.

I'm a big fan of this one and it's a solid 4 stars in my book.